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Why visit the Farmers’ Market?

The main reason to visit farmers’ markets is, of course, for food as fresh as can be.  The stallholders are primary producers, working from field to fork, and at the market they only sell what they grow or otherwise create: virtually everything at the market has been grown / raised / harvested / baked / cooked / smoked / processed well within 10 miles of the market site.  This has obvious benefits for the consumer – fruit and vegetables can be picked the day before the market, and driven the few miles to the town square, instead of being flown halfway around the world to a central packing house in Cheltenham before being driven hundreds of miles to a supermarket.  As well as the benefits for taste, there are obvious environmental benefits of the farmers’ market model – the food-miles are far lower, and so the carbon footprint is far smaller, for the market model than the equivalent produce at a supermarket – and market produce isn’t covered in layers of unnecessary plastic packaging!

Another major benefit of farmers’ markets over the soulless supermarkets is that you can find out exactly how the produce came to be at the market. Where was it grown?  What variety?  Is it organic?  Just ask the stallholder!  Of course, food doesn’t have to be organic to be high quality – many producers minimise their chemical use and maximise livestock welfare without being certified by the Soil Association.  Ask the stallholders – all will be willing to tell you how they farm (for a brief overview of some of the producers, go to our series of pen-portraits here.)  If you want to know how food came to end up on your plate, and you want to be confidant that it hasn’t been doused in chemicals en route, don’t go to the supermarket, visit the Farmers’ Market! 

High quality food grown by families on small local farms	Organic local produce, fresh from the soil

Something else you won’t find by going to the supermarket – there’s more to cooking apples than Bramleys!  Due to the supermarket’s dictation of size, shape, shelf life, and so on – everything but taste – their growers have been forced into growing varieties based on their ability to meet size requirements and survive the hundreds of miles of travelling from field to store.  There are no such constraints on market stallholders; they’re free to grow varieties with taste – and lots of them!  Strawberries that don’t taste of water, apples with flavour, and crunch, more than one type of potato – you can find them all at the market!  In addition, you’ll find things that you might not even have known exist – Kohl rabi, or the weird-looking Farmer’s Long aubergine – but they’re there and they taste good!  If you don’t recognise something, or don’t know how to cook it, ask the stallholder - or the person next to you in the queue!  It’s far more sociable than the supermarket, and the people selling you the produce aren’t school leavers doing the job for a few months for a bit of pocket money – they’re men and women who have devoted their lives to producing what they’re selling, they know what they’re talking about when it comes to their produce, and they’re more than willing to tell you 

A wide range of seasonal fruit and vegetables can be found at the market

Similar things are true of the meat you’ll find at the market.  Meat gains flavour before death from diet and exercise, and from being hung – in general, the longer hung, the better flavour.  In pursuit of the bottom line, supermarket meat tends to be intensively reared, usually indoors, and is hung for the shortest possible time – every day spent hanging is a day it’s not on the shelves!  There’s none of that at the market – livestock aren’t intensively reared, are outside wherever and whenever possible, and are hung for a decent length of time to ensure the best possible flavour.  Products such as sausages or burgers contain meat percentages well into the 90s – the rest is herbs, spices, and similar – a far cry from the supermarket ‘own-brand’, padded out with bulk and containing as little meat as possible!

Meat from very high welfare standard animals, such as these contented outdoor pigs, and sheep in the sunshine

Of course, not all the produce is available all year round – it’s impossible to grow everything all year round in this country, hence why supermarkets follow the sun and ship produce thousands of miles from overseas.  However, this needn’t be a problem – when one variety finishes, a different type is ready to take its place.  The advantage is that when it’s in season, the fresh local produce tastes far better than travelworn supermarket stock ever can!  Go for the freshest, best-looking produce, as that’s what’s in season that month, and if you can’t decide, don’t know what it is, or how to cook it, remember the golden rule!  All together now – ASK THE STALLHOLDER! 

Frequently, the whole family helps run the stall, and friendly service is the norm!

Crediton Farmers’ Market is a lively, bustling community hub, linking the rural and urban environments, and enabling each to better understand the other.  Meet up with friends and have a natter in the seating areas,  over a hot cup of tea, coffee or soup, eat a fresh, local hotdog or burger, or just wander round the square sampling the produce before buying, it makes shopping a fun experience – and when was the last time you heard that about a supermarket?

If you would like to join the market as a stallholder, see the guidelines for admissibility here